“The movie is important,” she said as firmly as she could. “That’s a big deal, and you don’t have to worry about me while you’re taking care of business. This is fantastic, and even if I miss you like crazy, I’ll be totally fine.”
“I hope so, and–shit, another call. Love you, babe, I’ll check back in when I can! Try to relax!”
Ros started to tell Tabbie she loved her too, but then the call dropped, and she sighed. Tabbie lived life at about a hundred miles per hour, while Ros was squarely someone who drove in the right hand lane and used all her turn signals. Somehow, it only made them love each other more, and when things got this bad, it was a lifesaver.
Now that she was out of the city and away from the flaming wreck her life had become, she could admit it. Things were bad, actually kind of terrible, and while she knew what she needed to do to get it all back on track, the task looked insurmountable from here.
Gone, it’s all gone, or it’s going to be gone, and –
Ros stared up at the ceiling until the tears subsided. No. She was absolutely not going to cry. She was going to relax. She was going to chill. She was going to get it together, and have a fantastic time, or if she couldn’t have a fantastic time, she was going to have aproductivetime. She would get her feet under her. She would use this respite to plan out what she was going to do next.
But first, I can have a little break.
She pulled out the artisanal cream soda she had picked up in town and poured it into a real glass before adding some ice to it. At home, especially lately, she would have just drunk it from the bottle, and probably lukewarm at that, but things were different here. She could take things slow, make sure things tasted good.
It occurred to her that Tabbie had mentioned a lot of mint in the backyard. That was a thing that people did, wasn’t it, put mint sprigs in their drink? It sounded good, like something someone who was very relaxed and chill would do.
Drink in hand, she went out to the back, where the glass sliding door opened onto the deck. Beyond was the enormous yard bordered by a stand of trees, and a mile or so beyond that was the lake. The late evening air was fresh and perfect, and Ros felt something in her that had been tense for a while start to relax, because after all, it was just life. Things came, they went, and she was going to learn to accept that.
Then she looked around the corner of the grill that bisected the deck, and saw the bird.
Oh… Oh that’s big,she thought, before taking in the wickedly curved beak, the long legs that ended in enormous claws and the small beady eyes that regarded her with interest. Ros thought it would have come up to her waist if it had stood up straight, but it didn’t, because it was bent down and pecking at a large skunk.
Well, it used to be a skunk,her brain offered cheerfully.
The bird must have had enough of her watching because it spread what seemed like an impossible wingspan and came straight over the grill at her, uttering a high and painful shriek that drilled straight into her ears. Then Ros’s vision filled with a flashing beak and dusty yellow feathers, and she lurched back into the cabin, somehow managing to get the glass door closed before, oh God, it could follow her indoors.
As it was, the bird hit the glass with a meaty thump, but it got up from the deck looking none the worse for wear. It peered through the glass at her, puffing its feathers up so it looked nearly a third bigger than it was and flapping its wings twice to make sure she got the point before returning to its meal.
Well, that showed me,Ros thought blankly.
After a moment, she made her way to the fridge. The open bottle of cream soda on the counter made her realize she’d spilled the glass on the deck, and she picked up the bottle to take a sip. It was still pretty good lukewarm, she decided.
Okay. There was a weird heron-geese-condor thing on the deck. She could deal with that. Or at least, the guy who could deal with baby opossums could deal with it. Just another bump in the road, and then it would be smooth sailing from here on out.
*
“Yeah, I can’t deal with that.”
The number on the fridge had summoned a skinny guy in ancient jeans and a Fish Love Me t-shirt who looked as if he hadn’t been excited since the turn of the century. He came quickly, but he took one look at the large bird sunning itself on the deck and shook his head.
“Why not?”
“Endangered. That’s an endangered bird out there, and it’s illegal for me to move her.”
The noise that Ros uttered made the laconic man give her a concerned look, but he continued.
“But I know someone who can. Now, listen, ma’am, this is important, all right?”
“Okay.”
“There’s maybe only fifty of those birds left in the wild. I don’t mean in the county or the state. I mean anywhere. That one, she’s really far from home. They come from the Middle East, originally, and I have no idea how she got here, but if she’s a breeding female, that makes her essential to the species, understand?”
“Oh God.”
“And they don’t look it, but they can be delicate. If you get out there with a broom or something hoping to drive her off, you could hurt her, and I don’t know if you know about the laws protecting endangered species or not, but you could be in a whole heck of a lot of trouble.”
“Wow. Okay, got it. No trying to drive them away. But what am I supposed to do then?”